Activists accuse ‘Want Daily’ of China pandering

WHITEWASHINGIn a column that tracks historical events, the newspaper failed to make any mention of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on the June 4 anniversary

By Loa Iok-sin / STAFF REPORTER

Chinese democracy activists and academics panned the Chinese-language Want Daily for skipping mention of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on its “Today on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait” section yesterday.

“Today on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait” is a daily section published by Want Daily, a member of the China Times Group, that recounts historic cross-strait events that occurred on that date.

Although yesterday marked the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the history section on Want Daily did not mention that event.

Instead, Want Daily recounted that Taiwanese singer Hou Teh-chien (侯德建) traveled to China despite being banned by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government on June 4, 1983, and said that Hou was expelled from China in 1990 — without explaining that Hou was expelled because he, along with several Chinese democracy activists, staged a sit-in on Tiananmen Square in support of the student demonstrators.

The newspaper also mentioned that China announced a 1 million-man reduction in its armed forces on June 4, 1985.

“The newspaper is quite innovative to talk about China’s reduction of armed forces, but not Tiananmen Square,” Wang Dan (王丹), one of the Tiananmen Square student leaders who is now in exile in the US, told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) yesterday.

“The disappearance of the Tiananmen Massacre from a newspaper in Taiwan — a place with a high degree of press freedom — shows that China’s influence has already penetrated into Taiwan,” he said. “If Taiwan cannot insist on its press freedom, it’s a tragedy for Taiwan.”

Chen Shun-hsiao (陳順孝), associate professor at Fujen Catholic University’s Department of Journalism and Communication Studies, said he was not surprised that Want Daily would refrain from mentioning the Tiananmen Massacre.

“Ever since its acquisition by Want Want Group, media outlets affiliated with the China Times Group do not report on anything that China doesn’t like,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with newspapers holding different political views, but the extreme China-­leaning stance that the China Times and the Want Daily are taking is beyond acceptable.”

Want Daily was founded last year after Want Want Group (旺旺集團), headed by Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), a Taiwanese businessman with massive investments in China, acquired the China Times Group.

Asked for comment, Want Daily editorial writer Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) said the newspaper had no special consideration on whether to mention the Tiananmen Square.

“If you take a closer look, you see that we mentioned Hou, and what happened to him is related to Tiananmen Square,” he told the Taipei Times. “Tiananmen Square is something that the whole world knows about, but we wanted to remind our readers about things that they may not know or have forgotten.”

In related news, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday urged China to treat democracy activists with more tolerance on the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, adding that China should take necessary steps to console massacre victims and their family members.

Ma said in a written statement that Taiwan commemorated the massacre because the public remembered the 228 Incident and the White Terror in the 1950s, and called on China to learn from Taiwan and face its past human rights incidents with sincerity.